


The Art of Persistence

by Tsukino_Akume



Category: Power Rangers
Genre: Gen, post-Once a Ranger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-16 06:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4614480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsukino_Akume/pseuds/Tsukino_Akume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam was never ready for another team. Fortunately, he doesn't get a choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Art of Persistence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kathillards](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathillards/gifts).



> **Pairings/:** None  
>  **Written For/:** kathillards  
>  **Disclaimer/:** If I owned them, the Once a Ranger team would have gotten their own season.  
>  **Prompt/:** i love the once a ranger team, and i'd just love seeing them outside a two-part episode, i wanna see them living together, dealing with each other, learning from each other, fighting monsters together, or even just hanging out. i wanna see them getting together every few months to talk shit about their teams and make fun of tommy oliver and compare teammates and anything else you can think of. just any of these five hanging out would be great. canon background romance is fine, if you want to include it.  
>  **Warnings/:** Angsty/Broody Adam, overwhelming amounts of fluff  
>  **Author's Notes/:** As much as I loved Once a Ranger, Adam felt really out of character to me. So this is a bit of a fix-it fic disguised as an innocent domestic fluff/team bonding fic. I hope you like it, kathillards! ^.^
> 
> Kira is singing [Just Words](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjrIOZa0EzE).

It felt good to be a Ranger again.

There was a sense of pride in knowing he was chosen to protect the Jewels of the Corona Aurora while the Overdrive Rangers were out of commission. In being given leadership of a team who looked to him with respect. He felt confident in his skills and abilities, standing in a room full of people of people who were so much younger than he was. 

Adam had never been any good at lying to himself. 

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the opportunity to be a Ranger again exactly, even if it felt more like he'd been commissioned rather than given a choice. But he felt weirdly out of sync with his new team. They were all so ... _young_. They were great fighters, but none of them used a style he was familiar with, and Tori, Xander, and Kira all had a tendency to fall back on their special abilities almost without thinking about it. He couldn't even understand what Bridge was _saying_ half the time. What was he even doing here? Why hadn't Sentinel Knight picked someone else, someone who fit in better with this kind of group? Why *him*? 

Not that it really mattered, he told himself. Once the mission was over and the Overdrive team was back in business, he'd be back in his dojo and they'd all go their separate ways. They worked well together, but it wouldn't last forever. 

No team ever did. 

"We're glad to help." 

Maybe if he said it enough times, he'd start to believe it. 

****

And then in a matter of days, it was over. 

He kept his goodbyes brief, promising to keep in touch and escaping with Alpha as quickly as he could. There was no point in prolonging the inevitable. It had been nice, being a Ranger again, but now all he felt was old and tired and worn thin in a way he couldn't put into words. It was time to head back to his dojo, to peace and quiet with his work and his students. 

It was time to go back to normal. Whatever that was these days. 

****

Three weeks after the mission for Operation Overdrive, Adam came home from late from work one night to find Kira sitting on his couch. 

She was humming under her breath to herself, legs folded up underneath her as she wrote in a spiral notebook. Once in a while she would reach over to a bowl on the side table and take a few pieces of popcorn. "Hey, Adam," she murmured. 

He was tired. It had been a long day at the dojo, and a long few weeks recovering from the mission. The mind may be willing, but the body wasn't seventeen anymore. Definitely not seventeen, he deduced, if he was so tired he was having hallucinations. Why else would he be seeing Kira on his couch at almost midnight? 

"Hi, Kira," he said at last, wondering if he sounded as tired as he felt. He decided to skip dinner and head straight to bed. It wasn't worth wondering about right now. 

"Good night," she returned absently, tapping her pencil and singing softly as he headed into the bedroom. " _They're just words ... It won't hurt me ... So if you wanna say something just say it to me ..._ " 

****

It was both easier and harder to convince himself Bridge was another hallucination. 

This time it was the middle of the afternoon, and he'd come home for lunch. He wasn't tired; working with his older morning students tended to energize rather than drain him. But there was no other explanation for why Bridge was doing a handstand in his living room. 

" ... Bridge?" he asked warily, just to be sure. 

"Hi, Adam," the hallucination greeted without opening his eyes. 

There were so many things he wanted to ask, but none of them seemed appropriate. 

He finally settled for "Help yourself to the fridge," and went in to make himself something to eat. 

"Thanks!" 

****

When he woke up one Saturday to find Xander making a mess in his kitchen, he was finally forced to concede defeat. 

"What are you doing?" he asked warily as he leaned against the doorway. 

"Prepping for lunch, mate," Xander returned cheerfully. "Kira's on a break and Tor needed some space today, so I figured we should put together a barbeque for when everyone gets here." 

Adam blinked. He spent a moment going over the sentence again in his head, and realized it still didn't make any sense. "... Why is everyone coming over here?" 

Xander gave him a look over his shoulder that was both fondly amused and exasperated. Something about it left Adam feeling unsettled. "Because Kira's got a break, Tori needed some space, and with all of us together, Bridge'll show up eventually." 

"Sooner rather than later," a voice piped up behind him, and he nearly jumped out of his skin as Bridge wandered past him into the kitchen. "Or is it now rather than eventually?" he wondered aloud as he leaned forward to peer over Xander's shoulder. 

Xander shooed him away with a pair of metal tongs Adam wasn't aware he owned. "Don't you know better than to disturb a master at work? What kind of manners are they teaching you in the future?" 

"That depends," Bridge answered thoughtfully. "In some cultures it's considered rude not to sniff the food. Or in some places, the cook. And then there's a few where you're expected to fight for the right to taste the meal - " 

"Are you usually this sarcastic?" Kira wanted to know as she set her guitar by the table and put a six-pack of soda in the fridge. 

Bridge looked puzzled. "I'm being sarcastic?" 

An elbow nudged his, and Adam glanced to his right to see Tori giving him a smirk. "You didn't think you were getting rid of us that quickly, did you?" 

_Is it wrong to say I sort of hoped so?_

****

"How are you people getting in?" he asked Tori with a sigh when he found her pacing his office as he arrived home from work. 

She gave him a pointed look. "Ninja." 

"Ninjas are assassins, not burglars," he countered, setting his bag down by the door. "And that doesn't explain the other three." 

"Xander has magic, Bridge can pick locks, and Kira knows where you hide your key. Look, I need your help. I've got this student that's struggling, and I can't seem to work out where I'm going wrong with her." 

He couldn't decide which of those things was the most unsettling. "I thought you owned a surf shop." 

She shrugged. "It pays the bills. I still help out at the academy from time to time. So anyway - " 

Adam lifted a hand, rubbing his temples. "I need food first. Come on, you can help make dinner." 

"Manual labor in exchange for advice? At this rate you'll be expecting me to eat, too," she teased. 

He snorted. "You should be so lucky." 

****

"Toast?" Bridge offered as he walked into the kitchen one morning, still blinking sleep from his eyes. 

He stared at him for a long moment. _Why is this my life?_

"Thanks," he said eventually, taking a piece off the stack on the table. "Is toast the only thing you ever eat?" 

Bridge seemed to contemplate that for a moment. "I don't think so. I do eat whatever's available in the mess hall. Or whatever my mom makes. Or - " 

"So yes," he interrupted, deciding he was not awake enough for this. "You do eat other foods." 

"I do," Bridge agreed amiably, not at all bothered by the interruption. "But toast is my favorite. Especially if it's buttery." He paused to wiggle his fingers toward his mouth for no apparent reason at all. 

Adam stared at him some more. "Why are you here?" 

"That's an excellent question. Why are any of us here, really? I mean, when you think about it - " 

"I meant," he corrected hastily, "Why are you here, in my house, right now. And not in the future. Isn't that against the rules or something?" 

Bridge considered that. "Probably." He took another bite of toast. 

Adam stared at his own piece for a long time. 

"So how do you know how to pick locks?" he asked finally, taking a bite. 

It was pretty buttery. 

****

"Do any of you ever come over here for anything besides food?" he asked the next time he found Kira curled up on his couch. "I'm sensing a trend here." 

"Sure," she answered, still focused on the guitar in her lap. "We come over here for peace and quiet, and to spend time together. And for you, obviously." She glanced up at him and shrugged. "But you're overworked and you don't eat enough, so food just sort of happens." 

His mouth worked for a moment as he tried to find a way to counter that, but she wasn't exactly wrong. 

"Active people have active metabolisms," she added, holding out the plate of cookies from the side table with a smile. 

Something about accepting one felt like giving in, but Kira looked so pleased he wasn't completely sure it was a bad thing. 

"So what are you working on?" he asked, nodding to her notebook. 

****

He didn't even bother to acknowledge Xander when he found him holed up in the biggest, most comfortable chair he owned with what looked like an ancient book in his lap, muttering to himself and making off hand gestures. He set a glass of juice and a sandwich on the nearest table and let him be. He probably didn't need to know anyway. 

****

"I don't remember agreeing to movie nights," he grumbled, but it was halfhearted at best. 

"That's because we didn't ask you first," Bridge said helpfully. 

"You're more likely to weasel out of it if we give you the chance," Kira added cheerfully, accepting the popcorn bowl Tori handed to her. 

"Besides, there are worse ways to spend an evening, aren't there?" Xander pointed out with a broad smile as he settled back in a chair with the remote in hand. "Oi!" he protested as Tori snagged it on her way past him. 

"I don't trust your taste in movies," she informed him as she took the open spot next to Adam. 

"And who says we should trust yours?" Xander demanded. "Maybe not everyone's in the mood for an action flick, eh?" 

Tori sniffed indignantly. "It wasn't an action flick," she informed him, clearly lying. "And I have excellent taste in movies, thank you." 

"Is that as big as the screen gets?" Bridge asked Kira curiously. "How will we see the projections from here?" 

"How about," Adam interrupted them all loudly, taking the remote from Tori, "The person who owns the TV gets to pick, and everyone else stays quiet while we watch?" 

"Fine," Tori huffed, settling against his shoulder. 

Xander shrugged, leaning forward to snag a piece of toast from the plate in front of Bridge. "Works for me." 

There was a moment of blissful silence as Adam started channel surfing the DVR. 

"Told you he'd go with it," he heard Kira whisper.


End file.
